Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Bottles, Butterflies, And Biomass: Recycled Glass Sand, Microbial Additions, And Herbivory Effects On Milkweed Growth, Kealey Skinner

Honors Theses

Plant-soil-microbe interactions are integral components of ecological networks and drive ecosystem function from the bottom-up. Whereas herbivores regulate ecosystem function from the top-down, having opposing and potentially complementary effects on ecosystem function. My thesis sought to understand how below-ground microbial communities contribute to herbivore preference and plant biomass across varied soil substrates. My thesis asked: how do substrate and soil microbial communities influence herbivore preference and plant biomass accumulation on swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)? To address this question, seedlings of A. incarnata were sown in 2.5 cm wide × 10 cm deep pots filled with either natural beach sand or …

Herbivory Of Phragmites Australis Along A Salinity Gradient In Connecticut Wetlands, Sydney H. Kolz

Honors Scholar Theses

Invasive Phragmites australis (common reed) is widely distributed in New England wetlands, where it often outcompetes native plants and decreases biodiversity throughout the food web. Controlling its invasion is a priority, especially in salt marsh habitat, but current management techniques are inefficient. Leveraging natural processes may improve control strategies, but in order to do so, we must first better understand how abiotic and biotic stressors interact and affect Phragmites. This study focuses on herbivory and salinity, two factors limiting Phragmites’ fitness. I measured soil salinity and quantified the damage of three herbivore guilds (i.e. gall-formers and stem-borers, leaf-chewers, and …

Investigating The Taxonomic Uncertainties Of Potentilla Rupincola, Natalie Elizabeth Hieber

Master's Theses

Landscape stewardship is an integral role for land managers that becomes more important when rare or endangered species occur within managed areas. Conservation across the landscape is a primary concern for land managers, but resources allocated for conservation can be limited due to many competing goals. Taxonomic uncertainty surrounding rare and endangered taxa, particularly plant taxa, that have historically been classified solely using morphological features further complicates conservation planning. One such taxon is Potentilla rupincola, a rare plant endemic to the eastern Rocky Mountains in Colorado. For over a century, botanists have debated whether P. rupincola is a distinct species …

Evaluating The Rural/Urban Divide In Conservation: Methods Of Improvement In Conservation Programming Across Kentucky, Lauren Tackett

Honors College Theses

Kentucky’s lands and waterways have always defined the state. Our unique karst landscape, combined with the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio River, help characterize the state and its identity. However, across Kentucky conservation efforts within recent years have been under attack. Through legislation changes and policy challenges, various bills have sought to repeal Kentucky’s conservation efforts regarding water, soil, and land use. Furthermore, there has been a rise in environmental disasters within the state that cause long term issues for both rural and urban communities to contend with. The responsibility of land stewardship falls on a variety of entities but weighs …

Population Structure And Connectivity Of Atlantic Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma Cirratum) In The Bahamas And Outlying Areas, Baylie A. Fadool

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding animal ecosystem dynamics and behavior at the individual and population levels is essential for identifying life-history patterns and important areas for management and conservation. Marine fish species often face minimal geographic barriers to movement, but environmental (temperature, salinity, current) or intrinsic barriers (philopatry, site fidelity) can dictate gene flow. Atlantic nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) are an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed ‘vulnerable’ species and present a unique opportunity to investigate patterns of population structure and connectivity in large-bodied sharks. They are benthic and display reproductive philopatry, with recent work suggesting they have the capacity …

Examining Extremes: A Comparison Between Machine Learning Based Southwestern Conus Seasonal Drought And High Fire Risk Event Synoptic Climatologies, Ethan M. Greenberg

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Southwestern United States (SW CONUS), comprised of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, is a vast region that tens of millions of people call home. Hosting ecosystems ranging from grasslands and shrublands to temperate forests and climate zones ranging from Mediterranean climates to arid deserts, the region is nearly unanimously prone to intense droughts and devastating wildfires. While fire weather conditions and drought are often studied separately or mentioned as background conditions for the other, there are relatively few studies that compare the typical meteorological conditions between the two. This study aims to more closely understand the meteorological relationship between …

Gaining Mussel: Evaluating Reintroduction Success Of Native Freshwater Mussels In Nebraska And Eastern Wyoming, Travis A. Moore

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Freshwater mussels are one of the most imperiled groups of organisms in North America, with over two-thirds of species considered threatened, endangered, or of special concern. These long-lived bivalves are essential to stream ecosystems, acting as filter feeders that improve water quality and as indicators of aquatic health. In Nebraska and Wyoming, native mussel populations have declined sharply due to habitat modification, pollution, and reduced connectivity. Two species of particular concern are the Plain Pocketbook Lampsilis cardium, listed as Tier I at-risk in Nebraska, and the Fatmucket Lampsilis siliquoidea, a Tier II at-risk species. In response, state agencies …

Quantifying Macrophyte Ecosystem Services And Improving Environmental Nonprofit Messaging, Peyton R. Hughey

All Theses

Environmental nonprofits are essential to the management and restoration of our natural spaces. They are also tasked with engaging the public via outreach, education, and advocacy. As natural spaces are degraded, the ability of environmental nonprofits to deliver on their missions will become increasingly important. This study aimed to improve two approaches to environmental nonprofits’ missions: ecological restoration and social media communication.

Environmental nonprofits operate with limited resources, and ecological restoration can be an exhaustive task; therefore, we explore functional restoration as a tool. In this study, we focus on the use of functional, trait-based restoration to restore ecological function …

On The Paleontology Of Belize, Alson Ovando

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Paleontology can be considered an underrepresented and emerging area of science in Belize. A primary aim of this thesis is to provide a background of paleontology in Belize and present the first comprehensive study of Quaternary vertebrate fossils known from the country. Quaternary fossil sites across Belize include caves, rivers, and sinkholes. In addition to reviewing and assessing material from known sites, this thesis presents new information and discoveries that were made while investigating Belize’s Quaternary fossil record. This thesis also includes a geospatial model depicting ecoregions in Belize during the last glacial maximum. Overall, the results presented here demonstrate …

Redeveloping Mississippi: A Case Study On Brownfields In Central & Southern Mississippi, Sahrah R. Yeroozedek

Master's Theses

Brownfields, or properties that are or possibly are contaminated with dangerous materials, represent a common obstacle for communities in Mississippi. The real or potential presence of contaminants at these sites often deters investors due to costly cleanup requirements (EPA, n.d. -b). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Brownfield Revitalization Program, implemented guidelines for covering the costs and labor associated with the remediation of these properties. The EPA is not, however, responsible for redevelopment that supports long-term environmental and economic sustainability. Although the EPA maintains inventories of all Brownfields, there is also no comprehensive database of Brownfields and their current …

Ecological Responses To Living Shoreline Restoration, Aaron S. Bland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Coastal built communities and natural coastal ecosystems face similar and interrelated hazards: shoreline sediment erosion, shoreline retreat, and worsening storms, each of which is exacerbated by relative sea level rise. Living shorelines are coastal defense projects that incorporate natural habitats to provide more sustainable shoreline defense and improve the coastal ecosystem. Living shorelines have been widely adopted, but their performance has been highly variable, and the mechanisms of project success and failure are unclear. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to better understand the ecosystem responses to coastal restoration, focusing on the primary habitats of coastal salt marsh and …

Enhancing Walleye (Ogaa) Recruitment: Evaluating Assisted Reproduction As A Mitigation Strategy, Douglass Keiser

Biology Graduate Theses

Over the past several decades, cold- and cool-water fish populations across the Upper Midwest, including Minnesota and Wisconsin, have shown troubling signs of decline. Among the most affected is the walleye/Ogaa (Sander vitreus), a species deeply embedded in the ecological balance, cultural identity, and economic vitality of the region, and central to the lifeways, treaty-reserved rights, and resource stewardship of Tribal Nations, including Ojibwe communities across the Upper Midwest. Despite ongoing stocking efforts and harvest regulations, many lake systems have experienced persistent declines in natural recruitment, prompting resource agencies to investigate the underlying causes. One such system is …

Integrating Incentive Design And Spatial Prioritization For Climate-Smart Forestry Adoption In South Carolina, United States, Miah Maye Pormon

All Dissertations

Forests provide essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water regulation, timber production, and habitat provision. However, increasing development pressures and land-use changes threaten forest persistence and long-run ecosystem service provision. Climate-smart forestry (CSF) practices, such as improved forest management and extended rotation, offer opportunities to enhance carbon storage, forest resilience, and economic livelihoods. The effectiveness of these practices depends on forest owners’ participation and the strategic allocation of financial resources or incentives. This dissertation develops an integrated framework that combines behavioral economic analysis and mapping to improve the design of current incentive programs. The first chapter employs the Contingent Valuation …

Microplastic Composition And Exposure Pathways In Freshwater Systems: A Multi-Matrix Comparison Between Streams And Retention Ponds In Hamilton County, In, Mya Whaley

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the early 1900s, the use of plastics has increased exponentially. The breakdown of plastic materials has exposed all ecosystems to microplastics (small particles of plastic < 5 mm), which are now ubiquitous in natural settings. Microplastics have a relatively large surface area, and many chemicals adsorb to these small particles, impacting their fate and transport of pollution. While microplastics have been found in virtually every setting on Earth, research is necessary to understand their impact on freshwater ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. The focus of this research was to investigate microplastic compositions in crayfish, sediments, and water samples collected in streams and retention ponds. We analyzed trends in microplastic counts across different land-cover classes, waterbody types, and species, and compared concentrations among matrices to improve our understanding of microplastic exposure pathways in freshwater ecosystems. As a secondary objective, lead and arsenic concentrations were analyzed from sediment samples to investigate metal burdens and compare them to microplastic concentrations. Our findings revealed that, in general, urban streams had the highest microplastic concentrations within land cover categories, and retention ponds had higher microplastic counts than streams. Crayfish, such as F. rusticus had higher microplastic concentrations than F. virilis and F. propinquus, although these results may be influenced by study design. The most common microplastic type was fibers, and most common color was transparent. There was no significant correlation between microplastic and metal concentrations in sediments. We found crayfish to be adequate bioindicators of microplastic pollution, because they were less impacted by environmental variability than sediment and water samples. This research presents the first evidence of microplastics in our study species, F. propinquus, F. rusticus, and F. virlis. This work presents new evidence of microplastic accumulation in crayfish, sediments, and water from freshwater systems in the Midwestern United States. Microplastics were found in every sample type—crayfish, water, and sediment—across urban, rural, and forested landscapes, highlighting their pervasive distribution. The findings provide foundational data for assessing emerging ecological and human-health risks and emphasize the importance of sustained monitoring and research on MP contamination in freshwater environments.

Ai-Driven Multispectral Drone Monitoring For Afforestation In Arid Environments, Hesham Morgan, Ali Elgendy, Brandon Tran, Tamer Ismail, Mohamed M. Moursy, Yehya Kh. Shehadeh, Ahmed Elgharib, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Dughairi, Ali El Mubarak, Khaled Allam Harhash, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Monitoring large-scale afforestation projects in arid and semi-arid environments requires accurate, high-resolution, and repeatable methods to assess tree survival and growth. In this study, we integrated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral imaging with an advanced object detection framework to evaluate vegetation establishment in the Shuayb Al-Budai afforestation site, part of the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Natural Reserve, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Multispectral datasets were acquired using a MicaSense Altum-PT sensor and processed through a masked Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (RCNN) with two backbone architectures: ResNet-101 and VGG19-BN. The Mask R-CNN–ResNet-101 model achieved superior performance, with an overall accuracy …

Applications Of Machine Learning In Enhancing Evaporation Estimation For Small Reservoirs: A Case Study In Semi-Arid South Texas, Syed Muhammad F Abdullah, Chu-Lin Cheng, Jude A. Benavides, Jungseok Ho, Rafael M. Almeida

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Small reservoirs in semi-arid regions experience substantial evaporative losses but are rarely monitored at daily scales. A multi-reservoir machine learning (ML) framework was developed to estimate daily open-water evaporation. Empirical models (Penman, Penman-Monteith, Priestley-Taylor, Bowen Ratio Energy Budget) andabenchmark combination method (Daily Lake Evaporation Model-DLEM) were compared against ML models. Predictors combined gridded meteorology (gridMET) with reservoir attributes (surface area, average depth, maximum depth, and fetch). ML models (Random Forest-RF, Decision Tree-DT, K-Nearest Neighbor-KNN, and Support Vector Regression-SVR) were trained on four reservoirs using data from 2018 to 2025. Results from ML models were further validated using both DLEM and …

Grassland Bird Community Responses To Fire Management, Mason H. Dillard

ATU Scholars Symposium

Vegetation structure plays a major role in determining avian community makeup. Controlled burn frequency changes vegetation structure and consequently the makeup of avian communities. To examine this relationship, I surveyed breeding birds in grasslands and savannahs of the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas River Valley, and Northwest Arkansas. I created models to outline the relationship between these three factors (avian community, fire management, and vegetation structure.) I also examined surrounding land cover and patch size as potential variables that may impact avian community structures.

I will outline the role fire management plays in determining the makeup of breeding bird communities in grasslands, …

Use Of Basal Tree Cavities By Sylvilagus Aquaticus In Central Arkansas, Heath R. Williams

ATU Scholars Symposium

Basal tree cavities are hollow structures at the base of tree trunks utilized by many wildlife species, including small mammals, furbearers, and bats. Dumyahn and Zollner (2010) demonstrated that swamp rabbits (Sylvilagus aquaticus) use basal tree cavities and speculated that they may be used for thermoregulation at the northern limits of their geographic range or as alternative escape routes. To further investigate swamp rabbit use of basal tree cavities, we placed camera traps approximately 1 m from the entrance of the cavities (n = 43) in various Wildlife Management Areas in central Arkansas. Along with control sites without cavities (n=25), …

Four Decades, No Progress: Time For A Columbia River Basin Compact, Liesl L. Bogaard

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Since the Power Act’s passage in 1980, the government entities who develop and implement energy policy in the Pacific Northwest have operated under a congressional mandate to protect fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin. However, nearly half a century later, the number of wild salmon and steelhead returning to their native spawning grounds is still in decline, largely due to dam operations in the Columbia and its tributaries. This Note examines the history of hydroelectric power generation in the Columbia River Basin and its impact on fish populations, drawing parallels between the environmental crisis in the Columbia River …

Enhancing Urban Garden Capacity By Linking Biodiversity And Ecosystem Function, Mary T. Nguyen, Carleen Rauh, Shelby Gresch, Charlotte Correiro, Heidi Elmendorf, Adriane Fugh-Berman, Gina Wimp, Alexandra L. Decandia

Virginia Journal of Science

Urban agriculture broadly describes food and plant cultivation in metropolitan areas. While biodiversity is thought to support ecosystem health and resilience, the relationship between above-ground and below-ground diversity has been understudied in urban green spaces. This study examines plant, animal, bacterial, and fungal diversity across three distinct urban habitats: a turf lawn, a forb garden, and a farming space. Using bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS2 sequencing, soil nutrient analyses, and surveys of vegetation and wildlife, we connect diverse philosophies in urban agriculture to their role in advancing community diversity and ecosystem function. We found that different urban gardens support …

Saved From The Brink Of Collapse: Evaluating The Success Of The Sussex Kelp Recovery Project, Keagan Farrell, Kelly Swyers, Adan Vasquez

Posters - 2026

Kelp forests are vital to ocean health, they provide habitat, food, and nursery grounds for a variety of marine species. These forests support fisheries, improve water quality, and help to protect coastlines (Eger et al. 2024). The Sussex Kelp Recovery Project is a marine conservation effort aimed at restoring their kelp forests along the Sussex coastline in southern England. This area lost up to 96% of its forests mainly due to the fishing practice trawling. Trawling is used to gather large amounts of fish, while dragging a net at the seafloor (Our history 2026). The main goal of the Sussex …

2026 Research Day Program, Lincoln Memorial University

Research Day

This program contains abstracts and presentation summaries from LMU's 2026 Annual Research Day conference.

Monitoring Terrestrial Ecosystem Productivity Using Hyperspectral Satellite Data, Serge Tuyambaze

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate estimation of terrestrial Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) is critical for quantifying global carbon sequestration and understanding the terrestrial carbon cycle. While eddy covariance (EC) towers provide standard flux measurements, upscaling these measurements to continuous global coverage remains challenging due to the sparse distribution of flux towers and their small footprints. Remote sensing (RS), especially coupled with eddy covariance data, has been used to estimate GPP at the global scale. Different RS derived productivity models have been developed, including vegetation indices, light use efficiency (LUE) models, solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), dynamic global vegetation models (DGVM), and machine learning. One widely adapted …

Speleoco: An Open, Low-Cost Arduino Co₂ Datalogger For Cave Microclimate Monitoring, Christos Pennos, Dimitrios Christaras

International Journal of Speleology

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) dynamics in caves are critical for karst processes, speleothem growth and dissolution, microclimate regulation, and caver safety. In cave atmospheres, CO₂ commonly derives from soil respiration, epikarst degassing, microbial activity, and, in tectonically active regions, deep-seated fault-related emissions. Fault-related CO₂ degassing may also track tectonic activity. However, continuous monitoring remains limited due to the cost and inflexibility of commercial instruments. Here we present an open-source, low-cost Arduino-based CO₂ datalogger designed for cave applications. The logger integrates a COZIR NDIR CO₂ sensor, a DS1337 real-time clock, microSD storage, and power-gating for extended deployment in humid environments. Firmware and …

Ecosystem-Based Flood Disaster Risk Reduction In The Little Ruaha River Basin, In The Southern Highlands Of Tanzania, Mawazo Ghambi, Tiemo Romward Haule

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Ecosystem-based approach that integrates floods and environmental risk management is believed to reduce flood disaster risk while providing socio-economic and environmental benefits to floodplain occupants. This study examined the socio-economic and environmental benefits of the ecosystem-based approach in managing flood disaster risk in the Little Ruaha River Basin in the southern highlands of Tanzania. The study involved 157 participants and employed the mixed research design to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews, direct field observation and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect primary data, whereas documentary review was used to collect secondary data. Findings revealed that …

Freshwater Quality For Recreation, Heather Nix, Masha Bokar

Forestry and Natural Resources

South Carolina has many water resources that provide tremendous opportunities for people to enjoy water-based recreational activities, such as swimming, boating, and fishing. Participation in these activities produces significant economic benefits and supports many jobs throughout the state. However, at times, water quality may be unsafe for immersion or skin contact due to high levels of pollutants, such as bacteria or cyanotoxins. It is important for people to be aware of potential concerns and understand methods for determining if a waterbody’s current conditions are likely to be safe for primary or secondary recreation.

Plaster Creek Watershed Management Plan: Chloride Addendum, Plaster Creek Stewards

Watershed Reports

This addendum complements the 2008 Plaster Creek Watershed Management Plan (WMP), which tells the full story of the Plaster Creek Watershed’s current condition, impairments, and need for restoration. This addendum focuses on chloride, an emerging pollutant of concern in Michigan that was not addressed in Plaster Creek’s 2008 WMP. This addendum meets the nine elements required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a watershed management plan to be officially approved; as such, its content and layout are intended for a technical audience.

Identifying Priorities To Guide Extension Water Quality Programming In Utah, Clare Entwistle, Sarah Erwin, Stephanie Vaughn

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Utah State University Extension water quality faculty conducted a statewide water quality needs assessment to identify priority contaminants and resource gaps. The results found that elevated nutrient levels and sedimentation were the top concerns where additional resources would be beneficial. In addition, insufficient funding for improvements and low public engagement were identified as key challenges in addressing water quality issues. Results revealed current unmet needs with regional variation to inform Extension resource allocation and programming.

Evaluating Carbon Risk And Benefit Under Improved Forest Management Prescriptions In A California Mixed Conifer Stand, Jonathan A. Garcia

Master's Theses

Improved forest management (IFM) prioritizes carbon accumulation through practices such as extended rotations and retention harvesting. These management strategies, increase fuel loads and elevate the potential fire intensity, may offset the benefits of carbon sequestration. Additionally, IFMs use spatially complex silvicultural treatments that may introduce prediction errors into the simulation processes used for long-term projections, and carbon accounting.

We evaluated the extent to which calibration in the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) reduces error in aboveground carbon stock predictions and tested whether modeling approaches and calibration influence the magnitude and direction of basal area increment (BAI) prediction error using generalized mixed-effects …

Monitoring Strategies In Cave Microclimate Studies, Nenad Buzjak, Dalibor Paar, Aurel Persoiu, Christos Pennos, Franci Gabrovšek, Valerija Rossi

International Journal of Speleology

Cave atmospheres are spatially confined but dynamical systems that influence subterranean ecosystems, geomorphological processes, registration and preservation of climatic signals in sedimentary archives, cultural heritage, and conservation management. Despite major advances in cave climatology, methodological approaches to microclimate monitoring remain fragmented and are in some cases still shaped by the long-standing assumption that cave air temperature simply reflects the mean annual surface temperature. This paper revisits that assumption and develops an experience- and literature-based methodological framework for cave microclimate research. Key terminology is addressed by distinguishing between cave climate, cave microclimate, and cave meteorology, and by situating microclimatic variability within …